The present invention relates to cables, in particular for power transmission, for telecommunications or for data transmission, or also combined power/telecommunications cables, wherein at least one coating layer consists of a recyclable material which is halogen-free and has superior mechanical and electrical properties.
There is currently a great need for highly environmentally friendly products, consisting of materials which are not harmful to the environment either during their production or when in use, and which are readily recyclable at the end of their working life. However, the option of using ecological materials is, in all cases, subject to the need to keep costs within acceptable limits, while still guaranteeing performance levels which are at least equivalent to those of conventional materials and which are, in any case, satisfactory under the most common conditions of use.
In the cables sector, in particular power transmission cables, the various coatings surrounding the conductor commonly consist of a crosslinked polymer material, in particular polyethylene or ethylene copolymers suitably crosslinked during extrusion, so as to give satisfactory mechanical performances even under heating in continuous use and under conditions of current overload, while at the same time maintaining a high level of flexibility. These materials are crosslinked and therefore cannot be recycled since they are devoid of thermoplastic properties, hence they can only be disposed of at the end of their working life by means of incineration. Moreover, in certain cases the outer protective sheath consists of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which is difficult to separate by conventional methods (for example in water by density difference) from the crosslinked polyolefins containing inorganic fillers (for example from ethylene/propylene rubbers containing inorganic fillers), and, on the other hand, PVC cannot be incinerated together with crosslinked polyolefins since this produces highly toxic chlorinated products by combustion.
Patent application WO 96/23311 describes a low-voltage high-current cable wherein the insulating coating, the inner sheath and the outer sheath are made of the same non-crosslinked polymer-based material which is black coloured by addition of carbon black. Using the same base material would allow recycling without the need to separate different materials. Polyethylene is suggested as the polymer material for uses at temperatures below 70.degree. C., while thermoplastic elastomers consisting of two-phase mixtures of polypropylene with an ethylene/propylene co- or terpolymer (EPR or EPDM rubber) are proposed in cases involving a maximum working temperature of 90.degree. C. Within the latter class of polymers, mention is specifically made of the commercial products Santoprene.RTM. from Monsanto (polypropylene-based thermoplastic elastomer) and of heterophase propylene copolymers obtained in reactor, with an ethylene/propylene elastomeric phase content of greater than 25% by weight, for example 43% by weight of ethylene/propylene rubber (product Novolen.RTM. 2912 HX from BASF). At any event, propylene/EPR or EPDM mixtures are concerned, obtained using conventional vanadium- and/or titanium-based Ziegler-Natta catalysts.